Monday, September 15, 2008

Guardedly Optimistic

Today begins the 50% week of tapering for the half iron-distance race. 50% feels like a vacation for me so I'm enjoying the time to catch up on other stuff (like laundry, and Annika's art projects, paying the bills, actually writing on the blog). Next week is even less so I'll be coloring my hair and baking, I imagine. Doug won't even recognize me.

At any rate, here is my race plan for South Carolina HIM:

Swim: 40 minutes. This is slightly faster than 2:00 mins per 100. This is "forever" pace for me, so I don't intend to hammer the swim at all. It's the warm-up. 1 Gu pre-swim after magic oatmeal/coffee for breakfast.T1: Under 3 minutes would be good here. Wetsuit removal could add time, though, so I'm considering going without it.Bike: 3.2 hours (17.5 mph average pace). 3 bottles Accelerade, 5 oz Gu in the flask, and water in the aerobottle. "Pick-me-up" of fig newtons at halfway point or whenever I'm in the valley. This will be tough for me. I just have to tell myself that we've done it before with a pee break so I can do it now.T2: Again, under 3 minutes is fine. If I can squeeze the potty break within this time, even better.Run: 2 hours. This is just slightly above 9:00 min/mile average pace. So long as my GI cooperates, I can do this. 3 Gus and Nuun in my hand-bottle. I should only need 2 Gus but I'll bring the extra and an extra Nuun just in case.

Therefore, here are the time goals:

Finish

Finish under 6 hrs

Finish without touring all of the porto-potties

Plan B is to average 10:00 min/mile for 2hrs 11 mins for the run and come in later. If I have to stop more than once at the potties and get behind, this will trigger a shift to Plan B. Plan B is just as good, but less fast.

And on the marathon front, last week my long run was 17 miles. Huge distance record for me.

I know, holy cow! And, it didn't even hurt.

This week, I had 12 on my plan but I think I screwed up the plan so I aimed for 14 at a 10 min per mile average pace. This is not a fast pace for me, but when you add in the potty stops and water breaks it really is. Combine that with regular milk instead of soy for breakfast (we were out of soy) and what you get is trouble. I had almost caught back up to 10 minute pace when I had to stop the second time and then I was behind for the entire rest of the run. Next time I'll go out a little bit faster so that I don't run out of real estate at the end to get back to my time. It didn't help that the weather was overcast and the clouds kept spitting rain at me. It's harder to run when you are wet.

This week, 8-10 miles (tapering!) and then the race so my long runs will start back on the week of Oct 12 (earlier if I feel good and the blood donation doesn't wipe me out).

7 comments:

I was reading your comment on the Beginner's Triathlete forum earlier. You are such a great athlete, and this is going to be a huge confidence booster for you moving on to bigger and better things!!!

I also laughed when I saw that 40 minute swim time. You are a great swimmer. I won't be surprised at all if even at an "easy" pace you don't beat that handily!! And what's up with these wet suits? LOL. I've seen chicas with sub-2 transition times that included wet suits! Geez! Talk about speedy peeps!!!

I agree with Wes about the wetsuit thing - depending on how far away swim exit is away from T1... in a sprint I've ripped mine off and got out in less the 2mins.. Oh but then in my halfs I tend to plod a bit more (putting coats on no less - English weather), and it's taken over 4!! LOL!

You are going to do a phenomenal job out there, I just know it. Sometimes I wonder how much the wetsuit really helps, I'm not sure if I'm going to wear one in Florida or not. It's a full sleeve, so it will take some getting out of, but I'm pretty quick.

I so wish that I was going to jockstrap this race, you guys are going to rock it!